Culture & Religion — May 22, 2010

Smart Series

“It is no longer a smart social move to brag about not owning a television,” writes Richard Beck. He says the small screen has gone from popular entertainment to popular art.

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TV critics and viewers alike no longer consider artistically ambitious dramas as miraculous aberrations. Richard Beck says it’s thanks to serialization that the small screen has gone from a mere medium of popular entertainment to one of popular art. “It is no longer a smart social move to brag about not owning a television,” he writes. “Many of the nineteenth century’s now-canonical European novels were originally serial works, published chapter by chapter…and consumed with the same sustained enthusiasm that now characterizes television viewing.”

A weekly newsletter featuring the biggest ideas from the smartest people

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